The Painter

"The Painter's" resembles a TV show canceled after its pilot, as it struggles with a weak plot and underdeveloped characters. Just as such shows may struggle to resonate with viewers, the film leans heavily on the prowess of its three main actors (father,daughter,grandfather) to compensate for narrative shortcomings. Unfortunately, even their stellar performances can't fully redeem the lack of substance in the storyline. The film, like an unsuccessful pilot, leaves audiences yearning for a more engaging and well-rounded cinematic experience."

Verdict: "The Painter's" falls short, earning a less-than-enthusiastic assessment. Its weak storyline and underdeveloped characters make it less appealing than even a depressing wall staring competition, leaving viewers with a lackluster cinematic experience.

Within the first 20 minutes of the start, I was thinking ,this would be a much better movie with better actors. Cases in point, Charlie Weber, Marie Avgeropoulos, and Leah Gibson (maybe not quite as bad as the others). No real emotion or even inflection when they're speaking. There were bright spots...Madison Bailey with the emotion and timing, very believable. And Max Montesi with the crazy, VERY BELIEVABLE. As highly predictable as the movie is, it is fast moving with decent action throughout, thank goodness. I don't know that I would actually recommend The Painter, but I did watch it to the end.

Right before seeing this I watched another 2024 action movie: 60 Minutes. There was practically no plotting on that one, but for a realistic feel and some decent action I gave it a 5 on another website. I was a bit surprised by the negative reviews of this movie here on Imdb, so I'm gonna write one that's not so upfront and insulting, you know, one that's more informative.

OK, so I'll point out that I thought the protagonist's essential super hearing was a bit creative. Other than that, I'm not really seeing anything here that hasn't been done before. Even though the writer certainly tried to bring some depth to all the characters (and thankfully the plot relies on this), the actual plot progression has been done many times before. Lather, rinse, repeat. Even the relationships between characters could be seen in the next Spy Kids movie.

We've gotten quite a few action movies that follow a basic formula this year, but this movie is more of a knockoff of many other knockoffs than others. Having said that, the filmmaking itself is never really terrible or even "bad" for that matter, but the acting quality varies and the plot can often be guessed.

Aside from this being nothing new or original, it's a poorly written and directed effort with corny dialogue and laughable action scenes.

In the early stages, we are meant to believe that a criminal of some importance has a security team made entirely of imbeciles that can't fight. They're so bad in fact, that a single man who moves slowly can defeat them all. Perhaps part of the reason for this is that, when one of the bodyguards is fighting with the hero, all the others become paralysed and only regain the ability to move when it's their turn to throw a punch 3 yards from his head. Throw in the odd embarrassingly bad commando roll that wouldn't look out of place in a 4 year olds gymnastics class and there you have it.

But that isn't all this cinematic masterpiece has to offer. No, it also has highly trained operators armed with assault rifles that couldn't hit a barn from 5 yards away. If those are the people that are meant to keep us safe, then we are doomed as a child with a catapult would make a more effective fighting force.

Finally, we come to the twist and the last bit of dialogue, which is delivered with all the emotional intensity of someone reading their gas bill out loud.

Consider this my favour to you - I have watched it so that you don't have to.

I think this might be the first time I could be bothered to write a review but...did it pass the time and I kind of followed what was happening? Yes. Was it enjoyable? No. This is what I imagine AI would spit out, direct and costume design (the set design and even cinematography were not bad tbf). There was nothing original in this film plot, but it wasn't satire or parody or even ironic, and it was INCREDIBLY moronic (at one point a computer virus in a flash drive goes up....in flames....). It was awful, but not so disruptively bad for the evening which I gave away to other tasks that I turned it off (there are your 2 stars), but somehow annoying and predictable enough to also be distracting -- and to make me write this review. Don't watch it. It's not bewildering, it's just bad.